LOCAL/STATE The Michigan Daily - Thursday, January 14, 1999 - 3A Student receives award for study on transportation University graduate student Talia cCray was one of 10 students in the nation recognized recently by the U.S. Department of Transportation. McCray, a doctoral student in the College of Architecture and Urban Planning, received a Student of the Year Award from the University Transportation Centers Program for her studies on the transportation needs of women in South Africa and Detroit. McCray identified several factors of transportation that influence women's decisions on whether to obtain health care, including travel and waiting time involved, pregnancy and crime rates at bus stops. McCray's research in Detroit involved work with the Healthy Baby Service, a private transportation service dedicated to making transportation to jrenatal care more accessible. With a grant from the National Institutes of Health, McCray spent four months in South Africa in 1998 com- paring the transportation issues there to those in Detroit. McCray was one of 20 students named in 1990 by USA Today as the All USA College Academic First Team and one of five people to receive the Young American Award from the Boy Scouts of America. 4wo honors given to physician University physician Paul Watkins recently received two prestigious awards for his research in clinical phar- macy - a MERIT award from the National Institutes of Health and the 1998 Therapeutic Frontiers Lecture Award from the American College of linical Pharmacy. Watkins, a professor of internal medicine and director of the University's General Clinical Research Center, received the awards for his research elucidating why some drugs have difficulty entering the body when administered as oral drugs. The NIH's MERIT Award will pro- vide Watkins with long-term grant funding. The ACCP's Therapeutic [rontiers Lecture Award is given annu- ly to outstanding investigators in clin- ical pharmacy. New book to help teachers writing science stories A reader titled "Exploring Science Writing: An Environmental Focus" was ublished recently by the Michigan Sea rant and Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant. The 74-page reader, developed in col- laboration with more than 100 teach- ers, describes a host of issues facing the Great. Lakes and oceans, helping instructors teach high school students the basics of writing science-based sto- ries. The Michigan Sea Grant is a joint program of the University of Michigan and Michigan State University that pro- motes the stewardship of the Great Takes and ocean resources. Copies of "Exploring Science Writing" may be obtained from Michigan Sea Grant in Ann Arbor for $10. Number of teen smokers declines Despite a trend of increasing smok- ing rates among high school students *ince the early 1990s, the latest results from the Monitoring the Future Study, which has tracked national smoking rates among American teens since 1975, show some evidence of a turn- around. Smoking rates declined slightly in 1997 among age groups from 13 to 18, according to the report. Lloyd Johnston, research scientist at the University's Institute for Social Research, headed the study, which is *ponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, one of the National Institutes of Health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. - Compiled by Daily Staff Reporter Asma Rafeeq. Dance Marathon kick-off boosts morale By Jody Simone Kay Daily Staff Reporter Five-year-old Briggs Parry is a Miracle Child through the Children's Miracle Network at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Mich. Earlier in his childhood, Parry was deprived of oxygen for 30 minutes and was thus diagnosed with anoxic brain damage. When he emerged from a coma, he was con- fined to movement with a walker. Last year, he was one of the children who attended the University Dance Marathon, which builds funds and support for the CMN. His father, Gary Parry said that after the event, Briggs "went home with this love for danc- ing," although he physically was unable to dance at the time. "You could see it in his eyes that he just wanted to be a part of it so badly," said his mother Julie Parry. At home after the marathon, Briggs dropped his walker and started to walk and dance. "It was the turning point of his whole rehabilitation," Parry said. Briggs Parry is one of many children at the Barnum Pediatric Rehabilitation Center at Beaumont that benefits from the Dance Marathon. Last night in the Michigan Union Ballroom, the Dance Marathon hosted a kick-off event consisting of dancing, games and speakers. "The kick-off is about getting the families and dancers together," said LSA senior Cali Mazzarella, a member of The central planning team. Dance Marathon is a 30-hour philanthropic and social event that takes place at about 30 universi- ties across the nation. The University held its first Dance Marathon last year, and had the most successful first-year Dance Marathon ever, raising more than $35,000 and involving hundreds of volunteers. "We didn't really even know if it was going to happen last year," said LSA senior Evan Meyers, the executive director of the marathon. "The turnout we got was the most moving and memo- rable day of my life." This year the campus response to Dance Marathon has increased greatly. More than 100 people already have volunteered, and the number of dancers from last year quadrupled to about 260 participants. The event also is sponsored by corporations such as Princeton Review and Anderson Consulting. Tom Hemr, a consultant at Anderson, said they not only give monetary donations but volunteers from Anderson also will work at the event. "It was really amazing, the number of peo- ple there" Hemr said. "We've been working on it since March last year," said LSA senior Jen Resenberger, the marathon's public relations director. "It all pays off when you see the smiles on the kids faces." Dance Marathon benefits children in numerous ways by subsidizing costs for programming. After last year, Beaumont created therapeutic programs such as an eight-week horseback riding program for the children. Neal Alpiner, director of Pediatric Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Beaumont said, "certain programs couldn't have been possible without the financial support of Dance Marathon. The students are also involved in other ways." Michelle Freeman, an occupational therapist in the pediatric ward, said one new program being developed for 1999 is a therapeutic dance program that will help disabled children to learn movement and become physically active. Dance Marathon is scheduled to take place from 10 a.m. Feb. 6 to 4 p.m. Feb. 7 at the Indoor Track & Tennis Building. The next mass meeting for vol- unteers is set for Jan. 19 in the Anderson room of the Union. Weather causes flight delayvs; more snow expected The Associated Press Michigan residents' battle with the elements was stepped up a notch yester- day as a new coat of snow complicated daily routines across the state. The latest storm forced cancellation of several flights at Detroit Metropolitan Airport, closed hundreds of schools and snarled traffic. "Any snow now is really causing a mess everywhere," said Danny Costello, a National Weather Service forecaster in Oakland County's White Lake Township. "I guess the snow plow people are just tired" Statewide, hundreds of elementary, middle atld high schools, colleges and universities shut their doors yesterday because of an overnight storm that brought up to a foot of new snow. And the beleaguered Detroit Public Schools canceled classes indefinitely beginning today so crews and volun- teers could clear snow blocking the paths of the 180,000 students. Clearing off roofs, streets and side- walks was hitting a snag in some areas because of the sheer volume of snow. "After a while, you don't have any place to put it," said Dane Rossato, administrator of the Dickinson County building inspection department in Menominee. Building codes for his part of the Upper Peninsula call for roofs to with- "Any snow now is really causing a mess everywhere.f - Danny Costello National Weather Service forecaster stand 50 pounds of snow per square inch, Rossato said. He said most mod- ern construction far exceeds that stan- dard, and most collapses involve older buildings that fail to meet code. This month, southern Michigan has been experiencing an Upper Peninsula- style winter - repeated snowfalls without thaws. That has left growing piles of snow everywhere, including building roofs. Several roofs collapsed in the Detroit area, including one at the Golden Gate Shopping Center in Wayne County's Canton Township. A coney island restaurant and an electronics store were damaged in the collapse Tuesday night, but no injuries were reported. Flat roofs present the greatest risk of collapse, Rossato said. "The lesser of your pitch, the greater is your risk," he said. Most people are best advised to hire someone with the right tools - and insurance - to clear the snow off their roofs, he said. The snow has been falling at a record-breaking pace in January, the weather service said. Detroit's 23.1 inches through 11 a.m. yesterday was tied for the fourth-high- est January total ever, with 18 days to go. The snowiest January ever was 1978, when the area got 29.6 inches! Saginaw's total so far this month was 25.3 inches, compared with the record 30.9 inches for January 1967. And Flint's 19.4 inches was on pace to top the record 28.5 inches set in January 1976. A foot of new snow fell Tuesday and yesterday at Lexington in Sanilac County, and 10 inches fell in Montcalm and Gratiot counties in central Lower Michigan. Detroit got three inches. The snow had let up by yesterday afternoon in most of the state, but sev, eral inches of fresh snow were expected in parts of the southern and central Lower Peninsula by today. Detroit schools were closed for four days last week, and only a fraction of students attended class Friday. The dis- trict held classes Wednesday, but Superintendent Eddie Green decided the condition of streets and sidewalks made it too dangerous to continue. WARREN ZINN/Daily Keith Hettinger, a resident of Arbor Hospice, talks with his minister yesterday. U hospiC mayalter care By Asma Rafeq Daily Staff Reporter Once terminally ill patients decide to move to hospice care, they must also give up cutting edge medical treatment. But investigators at the University Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Hospice of Michigan could help ease patients' decisions between aggressive treatment in a hospital and hospice care while simultaneously cutting medical costs. A study, called the Palliative Care Project, will offer participants hospice care at the beginning of their treatment while allowing curative care to contin- ue. Hospice care provides holistic sup- port for the dying and their families. Patients often receive hospice care only during the last few weeks of life when attempts to actively fight the dis- ease have ended. "Therehas never been a study like this that attempted to merge hospice and curative care," said Kenneth Pienta, lead researcher of the study and professor of internal medicine and surgery in the University Health System. With earlier hospice intervention in treatment, researchers hope to achieve better symptom and pain control to increase quality of life. The new approach will cut medical costs, researchers said, by reducing the number of hospitalizations and trips to the emergency room, as hospice staff are on-call 24 hours a day. Co-investigator John Finn called the study a response to Jack Kevorkian's challenge that patients should have the right to assisted suicide and to the fact that currently, end-of-life care is many times inadequate or too late. "If we don't fix this system, then Dr. Kevorkian is right," said Finn, the Hospice of Michigan executive med- ical director. "Patients should come to Michigan to die, not to see Kevorkian, but to seek expert pallia- tive care and dignity during death" The three-year study will evaluate 160 patients diagnosed with either advanced prostate cancer, advanced breast cancer, advanced lung cancer and congestive heart failure. Late referrals to hospice can hinder the effectiveness of the hospice care, said Bill Champion, resident adminis- trator of the local Arbor Hospice. Hospice staff, he said, address psycho- logical, spiritual and social issues and require patient trust. "It's very hard to begin achieving that kind of trust during a time of crisis at the very end of life," Champion said. Finn said the late referrals to hos- pice are partly the result of the struc- ture of medical reimbursement, which is heavily weighted on aggres- sive acute care. "It's an awkward system for physi- cians," Finn said. "The incentives are poorly aligned." Families of patients, especially those of child patients, often find it hard to give up hope for a cure and delay hospice care, Champion said. Researchers hope the study increas- es patient freedom and flexibility in terminal illness medical care. "When it comes to end-of-life care, most decisions are made around the patient,' Finn said. "It's almost as if we've failed to ask patients what they want." The study is being funded by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as part of a national pro- gram of studies called "Promoting Excellence in End of Life Care." Looking for,.CURRICULAR activities? Make the most out of your time here at the University of Michigan and come to Winterfest '99 aax bot h Today Thursday, January 14 ichin Union p a -44mA:Op #~ Y Learn aDoux the R .WZATIS that you canjoin. Discover the rewar s of becoming£ L'V. Do not let the pass you by without Makingo DIFFE E CE. urof the cotd an" warm v"6 rseffup with )I :L-L' , L LL~ KR G et o What's happening in Ann Arbor today Y'